Perspectives and Concerns of Final-Year Medical and Social Work Students Regarding Online Education During the Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown: A Comparative Study

The major societal changes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic had repercussions on all socioeconomic fields. Along with the health system, the social protection system, the HORECA system strongly affected by this crisis, the educational system had to find – in a very short interval – ways to adapt. The quantitative study features aspects regarding the final-year students' concerns and the solutions they found for adapting to the newly-created situation in order to finalise the studies and to pass to a new social-professional stage. The study conducted in the period April-May 2020 involved the descriptive statistical analysis of the information collected from the final-years students at "Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University Iaşi – the Social Work specialty and at "Gr. T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy Iaşi – The Department of Biomedical Sciences. We analysed the answers to 211 online questionnaires. The objective was the comparative study of students' opinion about: a) the concerns caused by the shift from education in the academic setting to education in the online space; b) finalisation of studies and of the academic year; c) the advantages and limits of the online learning during the state of emergency; d) the unfolding of practicum and/or volunteering activities, in order to finalise the studies; e) continuing online studies in the future. The concerns expressed by the university students were considered elements affecting well-being, partially allowing the persons to highlight their potential and to cope with the challenges of life. These concerns led to the elaboration of an index of concerns, meant to nuance the influences on perceived well-being, mostly in what regards the educational component.


Keywords: student, online education, state of emergency, perceived well-being